Abstract—This study applied DEA to verify the effects of mergers on the three cases of HEIs in Taiwan from 2012 to 2020. The results revealed NKUST’s merger promoted his PTE. Though, that was not the case in other mergers. The efficiency HEI can still maintain its PTE, as shown as NPTU, whereas inefficiency HEI became more inefficient, as shown as NTHU. Moreover, although the merger may bring in economies of scale and scope, the effects cannot be sustained, as shown as NPTU and NKUAS. Indeed, from the lengthy perspective, all of them experienced diseconomies of scale and scope, among others, NTHU and NKUST have been even into DRS. Finally, the TE of all three HEIs decayed, and both of the SE and TE did not yet recover to the levels before the mergers, by 2020. To sum up, the results recommended governments and HEIs should be prudential on the mergers of HEIs, especially in Taiwan suffering from the vivid and persistent drops in fertility rates. Moreover, HEIs should capitalize on their multi-field, interdisciplinarity, and multi-campus to develop and innovate the new courses, programs, and research meeting the needs of the times, and optimize their SE by the economy of scope. 
 

Keywords—Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), merger, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Technical Efficiency (TE), Pure Technical Efficiency (PTE), Scale Efficiency (SE), economy of scale, economy of scope  

Cite: Chiou Rung Chen, "Whether Post-Merger Higher Education Institutions Operate Efficiently in the Long-Run? A Follow-up Study in Taiwan," International Journal of Learning and Teaching, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 70-89, 2024.

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